Gainesville Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends

QUAKER NEWSLETTER GAINESVILLE MONTHLY MEETING OF THE RELIGIOUS SOCIETY OF FRIENDS 702 NW 38th Street, Gainesville, FL 32607; (352) 372-1070 www . g ai n e sv illeq u aker s .org Annie McPherson, clerk

Hold in the Light: Hap Taylor.

Calendar of Events: (online at www . g ai n e sv illeq u aker s .or g) Every Sunday: 11:00 am Meeting for Worship; 11:15 am First Day School Every Monday: 6 pm Yoga with Gary Sunday Feb 2 12:00 pm Welcome for New Members Tuesday, Feb 4 11:30 am Friendly Lunch - at the Meeting House Saturday, Feb 8 6:00 pm Quaker Dinner at the Meetinghouse 7:30 pm Share the Love Concert to benefit Solidarity/ Sojourners Sunday, Feb 9 12:45 pm Meeting for Worship for Business Sunday, Feb 16 10:00 am Singing from Friends Hymnal Friday, Feb 21 7:00 pm Film Night at the Meetinghouse. TBA Sunday, Feb 23 9:30 am Peace and Social Concerns committee 1:00 pm Bible Study Monday, Feb 24 Deadline for newsletter items. Email to Bonnie Zimmer at [email protected]

The Library Committee is responsible for organizing set-up and clean-up of food after Meeting for Worship. The list for committees responsible for set-up and clean-up is located on the bulliten board by the coffee pot in the social room.

New From QuakerBooks For more information go to www.quakerbooks.org The Light Within, Then And Now. By Rex Ambler When contemporary Friends speak to each other of the Light Within, do we have a shared understanding of what we mean? Is it the same Light that George Fox spoke of? Rex Ambler explores how early Friends thought about and engaged with the Light in ways that have mostly been lost to Friends today. How could we be enriched - as individuals and as a community - by recovering some of the early Quaker experiences of Light? Discussion questions included. Pendle Hill Pamphlet 2013 34 PP. Paper

Newsletter Items

An email address specifically for the newsletter has been set up at Gmail. The address is: [email protected]. Please use this email for newsletter items.

Email List The Meeting email list has apparently disappeared into cyperspace. If you want to get the newsletter via email, please sign up again on the website. Sorry.

Local Artist Robert Roberg Local artist Robert Roberg is opening a museum in Newberry on February 21. Robert is an occasional attender at Meeting. All are invited.

Quote from Nelson Mandela “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate, Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually who are you NOT to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the World. There is nothing enlightening about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And so as we let our own Light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear; our presence automatically liberates others.” The Light shines through, unhindered by death or mundane jobs.

Angel Gabriel Welcome to Angel Gabriel. He weighed 7lbs 3.5 ounces when he was born on Jan 7, 2014 at 17:52.

Quaker Dinners Quaker Dinners will be held on the second Saturday at 6:00 pm during January, February, March and April.

Guatemala Fund Raiser Dinner The Quaker Dinner in January was a fund raiser for the Guatemala scholarship program. Gainesville Meeting has participated in this program for many years. The program provides needed educational monies for students with preference being given to rural students, women, Mayas, and those whose chosen focus can benefit their community. We were able to raise over $500 at the dinner. This amount was matched so we were able to contribute $1000 to the Scholarship Fund.

February 2: Welcome for New Members Gainesville Friends Meeting will be celebrating the transfer of memberships of Ted Jones and Bonnie Zimmer at fellowship after Meeting for Worship. Ted and Bonnie have been actively involved in our meeting for over a year. They moved to Gainesville from New Jersey where they were long term members of Barnegat Monthly Meeting. Please join us to officially welcome them to our meeting.

February 8: Quaker Dinner 6:00 pm February Quaker Dinner will benefit the General Fund.

February 8: Share the Love Concert by Bella Luna 7:30 pm Following the Quaker Dinner will be a concert by Bella Luna to which the public will be invited. Donations will benefit the Solidarity/Sojourners Fund. It is hoped that sufficient funds will be raised to fund another home in Nicaragua this year. Bella Luna plays songs from the Great American Songbook. David Cook – Piano Annie McPherson – Bass & Vocals Ron Shorr – Guitar Rob Rothschild – Percussion

Film Night As a consequence of moving the Quaker Dinners to the second Saturday, Film Night will move to the third Friday night during the months of January, February, March, and April. Tim Ray is looking for films for film night. If you have DVDs that might be of interest, see Tim.

Pure Grace A new printing of Dick Beardsley's book, Pure Grace: Memoirs, Poems, and Artwork is available. A copy is in the library.

Outreach – Friends Journal Last September a music video was posted on YouTube entitled “The Fox” You can view it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE. It quickly went viral and became a hit amoung teens and young adults. In late November a group of Friends from New England Yearly Meeting posted a parody of the original video entitled “What does George Fox Say?”. You can view it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhsvqbCIaAs. (It makes more sense if you turn on the subtitles.) It also went viral and was mentioned by the Huffington Post in early January. Friends Journal has a You Tube channel with several interviews and on January 13, 2014, published an interview with the person who created the video parody. You can find it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daVZCv8QNsg.

PICO Winter National Training, 2014 As Gainesville Friends Meeting's representative on ACTION Network, a local interfaith organization whose mission is advocacy on behalf of those in need, Tim Ray recently attended the Winter Leadership Training of PICO, the 40 year old national organization of which ACTION Network is a local member. As one of 135 leaders, clergy, staff, and allies from across the country, Tim participated in weeklong training held at The Lodge at Simpsonwood, a Methodist adult and family retreat in Norcross, Georgia, north of Atlanta. The training focused intensely on social justice, organizing, race relations, and meditating on our own power to work with others in acting, living, and speaking out in accordance with the prophetic Biblical instructions to "feed the hungry, clothe

the naked, and speak justice in the public square." Members and attenders who are interested in becoming acquainted with ACTION Network and PICO are encouraged to contact Tim Ray. Peace Helmet Award Over the last 27 years, Veterans for Peace has recognized people whose service is integral to the work of VFP. This recognition is acknowledged with the presentation of the Peace Helmet Award. The award is a beautiful stained glass replica of the VFP symbol of the Dove of Peace on a military helmet. For the past 27 years, these stained glass Peace Helmets have been created for us exclusively by McIntyre Stained Glass Studio. We started giving this award out publicly at the Solstice in 2008. We do not give this award out every year. This year the award was given to Doris Nabors and Gloria Summers.

Queries for the Second Month: Are meetings for business held in the spirit of meetings for worship? In decision-making, do we promote a spirit of love, understanding, and patience as we seek unity on an appropriate course of action? Do we keep our remarks simple and speak only as the Spirit leads? Are we able to unite in good grace with the sense of the meeting when our personal desires tend in another direction? Do we maintain respect for others, however strongly our opinions may differ? Are meetings for business seen as positive opportunities for testing and practicing our spiritual life?

Advices for the Second Month As members, attend the business meetings and extend our support to the meeting’s affairs so that the burden will not rest upon a few. In meetings for business and in all duties connected with them, seek the leadings of the Light. Avoid undue persistence. As we release our attachment to our ideas, the Light may reveal solutions none of us has considered. Be willing to admit the possibility of being in error. Remember that the foundation of a lasting decision lies in the search for unity–that is, a corporate seeking of the Light in an atmosphere of love, trust, and mutual forbearance. Attenders are warmly invited to attend and participate in meeting for worship with a concern for business. Have a sense of when to continue to labor on or to lay aside an issue.

Gainesville Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends 702 NW 38th Street Gainesville, FL 32607